City real estate a leader in climate change resiliency: report

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This article was published 07/09/2023 (785 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg is among North America’s top real estate markets leading climate change resiliency, according to a new CBRE report.

The global commercial real estate agency conducted its first sustainability study of North American cities, releasing a report Tuesday. It evaluated cities’ emissions reduction targets, vulnerability to climate change and green building stock, among other things.

Winnipeg ranked in the top 10 of 66 cities.

Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Boston, Denver, New York City, San Francisco, Austin and Washington, D.C. also made the list.

Each city has pledged to be carbon neutral, or to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions, by 2050.

“Compared to other cities in the study, Winnipeg’s physical climate risk is below average, resulting in a relatively lower risk of climate change-related extreme events,” Dennis Schoenmaker, executive director of CBRE Econometric Advisors, wrote in an email.

Occasional flooding, drought, wildfires and severe thunderstorms will likely affect Winnipeg buildings in the coming years, the CBRE report highlights.

Winnipeg’s hydroelectric power gives it a “significant advantage” in the fight against climate change, Schoenmaker continued. Around 97 per cent of the city’s electricity comes from renewable sources.

Ten per cent of the city’s commercial buildings are LEED-certified, meeting a high bar of environmental standards, the CBRE found.

“The cities that are taking a proactive approach to climate resiliency today will have a competitive edge in the future,” Schoenmaker wrote.

Such cities will be best positioned to attract investors and tenants looking to meet their own sustainability goals, he continued.

“This is likely to help cities protect their property values.”

The CBRE conducted its study to help clients evaluate real estate markets based on key environmental characteristics, he wrote.

“The transition to a low carbon future will increase the factors and costs that real estate investors and occupiers have to consider,” including new regulations, he added.

Winnipeg’s net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target is 2050. It joins Montreal and Ottawa, among other cities.

Climate change resiliency hasn’t been a deciding factor for many home buyers, noted Kim Gandier, the Manitoba Real Estate Association’s vice-president of public affairs.

“There’s been more of a focus on interest rates,” she wrote in an email. “Not to say that (climate change) isn’t a consideration for some.”

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly a priority for real estate investors and tenants, the CBRE asserted in its report.

Almost 70 per cent of more than 500 commercial real estate professionals the CBRE surveyed globally last year ranked reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a top organizational goal.

The CBRE considered Winnipeg’s water stress “low.” It noted that both air pollution and heating degree days have decreased over the past five years.

“It’s great that (Winnipeg) has all this renewable energy, which might make our real estate and access to affordable real estate attractive to investors,” said Ryan Bullock, an environmental studies professor at The University of Winnipeg.

However, the report leaves out critical details, such as where the energy comes from, Bullock said.

Much of the energy used in Winnipeg comes from northern generating stations, which “came at a cost to Indigenous peoples in Manitoba” and is not necessarily “socially resilient” energy, he said.

It’s also hard to predict how climate change might affect water resources such as Shoal Lake in the future, Bullock added.

“I’m not saying that Winnipeg is a bad place and that people shouldn’t buy land here. I’m saying this report doesn’t acknowledge these things,” he said.

Winnipeg should improve its public transportation, retrofit old buildings and embrace different forms of renewable energy — such as more solar panels on downtown highrises — to meet emissions reduction targets, Bullock said.

Commercial buildings account for 39 per cent of carbon-related emissions worldwide, a 2019 World Green Building Council report states.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com